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Monday, September 10, 2007

Anything under 'Freedom of Speech' !!!

Came across this article in Rediff, Please retire, Mr Bachchan !!!. It is written by a gentleman (I assume) called Mr. K S Shekawat. Now, I regularly read movie reviews from Rediff (not that they are very great or unbiased) and I do not recollect having seen a review by this gentleman. So I cannot comment on his ability to judge good cinema or performances. But one look at the article and you can assume only one of two things: either the writer has a personal vendetta against Mr Bachchan or he was just plain drunk while writing this piece.

Now, I am no big fan of Amitabh Bachchan. I used to be at one point of time, but I agree that he has over-exposed himself, acting in all sorts of run-of-the-mill movies, that too, in special appearances here and there. And apart from Black, there have not been many recent performances to shout about. And not to mention his innumerable ads that keep popping up in every break on television. And I can hazard a guess that he has lost quite a few fans because of this. But to say that 'the cast in Nishabd had no clue how to act' and 'dance with those enunch-like steps' (I have not seen enunchs dance quite like that) is plain degrading. What is however, more appalling to see is that this article has not appeared on some personal blog (where it is perfectly entitled to be) but on a national website that is watched by millions every day. Either the Rediff editorial board (if it exists) was blissfully sleeping during this or it conveniently turned a blind eye to all this. If the latter is true, it serves to merely cement my belief that such websites have become nothing more than cronies of certain powerful celebrities. Either way, I would love to see Mr Shekawat answer all the questions posed by the irate Big B fans (see comments below the articles) and write a follow-up article. One cannot simply write anything under the garb of freedom of speech and get away with it.